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bed-room, in one. It is what, in this country, is called "a Nigger-shanty;" that is, it is a hut built by some one or more of the many hundreds of negroes who flocked within our lines upon the earliest Federal occupation of this Dist. It is a miserable, tumble-down, ricketty sort of affair, tho' it is quite a palace compared with what it was when we came into it. It is 10 feet long and 8 feet wide; it has a fire-place, also a floor, also a roof. When it don't rain - when we can get any wood to burn - when the [begin struck through text] the smoke and [struck through text end] ashes don't fly all over the house and the smoke don't blind us and the rats are quiet and the wind don't blow through the crevices and the water doesn't drip down on us from the roof and the floor does not slide and "wiggle" to and fro under our feet - it is a very comfortable place indeed. The Major has a bunk, and so have I. At night we take turns in dodging the rain and in throwing our boots at the rats: he is absent during the greatest part of the day, and so I have my hands full of business. We mixed some strychnine with corn meal the other day, and put it into the holes whereat the